1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to telephone systems, and more particularly, to a telephone answering apparatus which can be installed at a receiving end of a telephone system for answer-only operation of prerecorded voice messages.
2. Description of the Related Art
A telephone answering machine is an electronic device which can be attached to a telephone for automatically answering calls with prerecorded messages and recording the caller's messages for later playback. Conventional telephone answering machines, albeit more powerful in function, are complex in circuit structure, which causes manufacturing costs to be high. For instance, the UM9701 telephone answering system manufactured by the United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) of Taiwan, ROC, is capable of prerecording a lengthy record of voice data, but it is quite complex in circuit structure and thus is costly to manufacture. In many telephone answering applications, such as in a corporation central office, the recording of the caller's message is usually not necessary.
Therefore, a telephone answering apparatus with answer-only operation would greatly simplify the circuit structure and save manufacturing costs, therefore increasing competitiveness in the market.